1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the operation of residential real estate brokerages. More specifically, the invention relates to software and information processing methods and systems required to facilitate buying and selling of residential real estate using public Internet access to a virtual office computing environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Residential real estate brokerages generally use a diverse set of computing technology. In some cases, personal computer-based software is used as contact management for agents, or for business form entry, storage and retrieval. Other software is used by brokers and agents to access local residence listing data services, such as the Multiple Listing Service-MLS® (MLS® is a mark of The National Association of Realtors, Inc.) database system to obtain information on homes listed with MLS database subscribers (typically licensed real estate brokers) as being offered for sale. Still other software is used to perform office functions, such as accounting and payroll. Some real estate brokers have Internet websites (sites on the World Wide Web, referred to herein as “web”) used for the purpose of advertising their “listing information” (data on properties offered for sale through the respective brokerage) to the public. Typically, brokerage organizations having multiple brokerage offices in various locations throughout the country will try to standardize the software used in each of their offices.
Within each brokerage office in an organization having a plurality of such offices, a limitation to using a diverse set of software tools is that information stored in one software system may be desirable to be used in another software. For example, client contact information may be used later as customer information entered on “offer-for-sale” forms. In order to maintain information continuity, current methods of storing data in a brokerage office typically require hard-copy (paper) files. It is quite common for brokerage organizations to maintain an administrative staff entirely for the purpose of maintaining customer records in such files. Lack of ability to use data stored in a single location for multiple purposes hinders the ability of a multi-office brokerage to manage its operations and consolidate its financial management.
Agent efficiency is another issue related to the ability to use customer data for multiple purposes. Real estate agents spend considerable time “showing” homes to prospective buyers, keeping track of which homes that were shown to particular prospective buyers, and scheduling appointments to show these homes to prospective buyers. Prospective buyers may find it inconvenient to use an agent for scheduling home viewing appointments because prospective buyers have no way to determine whether they are making a viewing selection from the entire pool of properties offered for sale, or the ones the agent himself has selected from the pool. Often, prospective buyers find it inconvenient to keep accurate records detailing which homes have been viewed, particularly after a continuous session of viewing a large number of homes.
The process of completing a residential real estate sale transaction is laden with forms. In most cases, each of these forms contains information that is common to all the forms required to complete a sale transaction. The agent is typically responsible for obtaining information accompanying an offer to buy, and acceptance of the offer to buy (typically embodied on a standard residential real estate sales contract form). However, to complete the sale transaction (known in the art as “closing” the transaction), dozens of other forms are required by third parties to the transaction. Third parties include mortgage providers, title insurance providers, casualty insurance providers and inspection service providers, among others. Many buyers are overwhelmed by the closing process and typically close a transaction without really knowing which forms they have signed, or what contract terms have been agreed to, just to get the transaction completed. Because of the number of such forms involved, it is estimated that between five and fifteen percent of the cost of each major service (such as those listed above) in any transaction are attributable merely to document transcription and document courier costs. These costs consist of, among other things data on forms being entered into computer systems, and documents being transported from the point of origination to a processing location.
What is needed is a system which stores data on properties offered for sale, as well as customer data, in a location which is commonly accessible by all entities having an interest in the transaction.